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Time to stop trusting BIG networks and start trusting each other.

I just ran across a new site called Nextdoor. It tries to address the issues of bringing people together. The problem is that it is funded by venture capitalists, so this means there is one motive behind the community creation. MONEY. This means that you are going to be data mined. If they get big enough, they will most likely be taken advantage of by the NSA, CIA, FBI and other authorities who desire your info. They are right up front that the local cops have access to the site. Apparently the site is not about community about corralling the community together based on fear. If we look at their privacy policy we can see that they have no plans on letting your data go or giving it away:

Our “Corporate Family.” We may share your data with any parent company, subsidiaries, other entities under a common control or third party acquirers. We expect these other entities will honor this statement. Also, we may allow a potential acquirer or merger partner to review our database, although we would restrict their use and disclosure of this data during the diligence phase.

Government Relations and Lawsuits. We may disclose data about you to the government if we are required to do so or as we think is prudent for safety or security reasons; and you authorize us to make these disclosures. We may also disclose data about you in connection with actual or potential legal proceedings (a) in response to judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants or orders, (b) if we are required to do so in other ways, (c) if such disclosures might mitigate our liability, or (d) to enforce our rights.

Limits on Our Abilities. While we work hard to respect your privacy, like any other complex web service, we might inadvertently use or disclose your data in ways inconsistent with this statement. For example, a temporary software glitch could lead to public display of your personal data despite your contrary preferences. We might also make ad hoc uses of your data in ways not mentioned here. In these anomalous situations, we will try to rectify the anomaly as soon as we can.

Data Retention. Subject to any mandatory obligations to delete data, we may choose to retain information in our server logs, our databases and our records indefinitely.

Security. To enhance the security of your interactions with the site, Nextdoor.com uses https on its web pages to prevent unauthorized interception of your communications during your site visits and takes measures to protect passwords from unauthorized access. We also use a variety of security measures to protect your information in our databases. However, perfect security does not exist on the Internet.

The reality is that it would be way easier and safer to just go meet your neighbors in person, than use services like this. But if you are lazy and don’t really want to meet anyone in person, then the answer is clear that you should sign up for the site.